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Thursday, 30 April 2015

GUY WARE - THE FAT OF FED BEASTS (2015)

Synopsis/blurb….

Monday lunchtime: a
bank is being robbed. The gunmen tell everyone to get down on the floor, but an
old man refuses. Behind him in the queue is Rada Kalenkova, an investigator for
the Office of Assessment, recording everything she sees. Shots are fired and a
woman is killed. Or maybe two. But Rada ignores the murders and pursues the old
man instead.

Nothing about the
robbery or the putative killings makes sense. The robbers might be police. The
bank manager denies anyone was hurt, despite the blood on the walls. Every
subsequent enquiry leads towards Edward Likker, a renowned fixer. But Likker is
dead.

The Fat of Fed Beasts
is an ambitious literary mix of existential uncertainty, murder, bureaucracy,
unreliable father figures and disaffected policemen. It asks why we do what we
do, whether it matters, and what, if anything, our lives are worth. And it’s
funny.

‘Ware has an
uncluttered prose style and a willingness to stretch the boundaries of fiction.
His sensibility is finely tuned to those grey areas of experience where
identities shift, where people forget who they really are. No other writer
springs to mind as a ready comparison to Ware: already he has defined a unique
thematic territory.’ AIDEN O’REILLY, The Short Review

I had fairly high expectations for this book and I whilst I enjoyed
it and it was interesting and well written, by the time I got to the end I was
left scratching my head, wondering what had happened and why, as well as what
it all meant. Which the more I think about it, may have been the author’s
intention all along.

We have the bank robbery mentioned above and Rada one of the
team from the Office of Assessment breaches protocol by pursuing a live
witness, when her employment is strictly concerned with the dead. The team at
the Office includes, boss Theo – soon to be retiring, Rada, her half-brother –
D. and Alex. D. despite his junior position has a high opinion of himself and
is jostling for Theo’s position once he has gone. Their function is to look
into the lives of the dead and make a recommendation as to onward destination –
heaven, hell or limbo.

We have multiple narrators, which when they jump in, it
wasn’t immediately apparent to me who was speaking and who’s head we are
inside. This includes one of the bank robbers. The robbers themselves are an
interesting bunch insofar as they are three police officers, one of whom is
retiring in a few days. The others have also stalled in their careers.

Rada pursues the live witness. The robbery is investigated
by a detective and also looked into by Rada’s brother. One of police officers-cum-bank
robber fears the robbery resulted in a couple of deaths and there is mistrust
and suspicion among the thieves. The one thief who knows claims she shot through
the ceiling to quieten a panicking witness, though it was eerily silent after
the second shot. The bank claim no-one died, but that’s an awfully big blood
stain running up the wall in the bank. D. thinks he can profit professionally
from his sister’s unprofessional behaviour.

Her suspension from work means her case-load is divided up
between her colleagues. And introduces the mysterious and feared Lopez to the
office. One of Rada’s cases is pursued by Alex and is the suicide of a lawyer -
Rodkin who killed himself by sawing his throat with a bread knife. He is connected
to Likker, a dead man, who was his client. Our bank robbery witness was
attempting to withdraw cash from Likker’s account. Likker and Lopez knew Rada
and D.’s father, who perhaps wasn't who he seemed to be and also died in
unusual circumstances, tagged as suicide.

Things get confusingly resolved in our dead lawyer’s
basement flat where Alex had been held prisoner for a few days by Kurt. (Who
the hell was Kurt?) In attendance are Lopez, Alex, Rada, D., Theo, our
investigating police officer and our bank robbers. Something dramatic happens
and life then goes on.

Interesting and enjoyable, but my enjoyment was tempered by
not really comprehending what it all meant. A re-read in a year’s time might
offer me a better understanding.

Great characters. We share some of Rada’s home life, with
her husband, Gary and their son. Her half-brother lives with them as does Alex.
D. thinks Gary’s an idiot. Gary is too blinkered to comprehend this. Alex and
D. don’t gel.

Some great lines dropped in throughout, one of which stayed with me…….

In life, I find the
secret is to plan nothing, to want nothing, just to see what happens. What is
offered. Such a life requires strength and stealth and is harder than it looks.

Oscillating between a 3 and a 4. On balance probably a 3.

Guy Ware has a
book of short stories previously published – You Have 24 Hours to Love Us.

14 comments:

This does sound like an unusual kind of book, Col. Kudos to the author for innovating, but I can see how one might be confused about what's going on, etc.. I think I prefer books where I have (or develop as the story goes on) a little bit of a clearer picture of what everything means. Still, as I say, points for trying something new here.

Agreed re author and trying something new. I perhaps think I'm more of a fan of clarity and definites at the end of my reading, though not not always admittedly.I'm sure there will be a ton of people who get this totally and rave about it, and I'm a little bit envious of them TBH,

I had earmarked a passage of prose which showcased a man's attire, right down to the green tie. I was going to include it in my post a la homage to CiB, but I couldn't blooming well find it again. I'm guessing you'll spot it immediately.

From information gathered, the book seems a little too self-consciously clever, very much the product of a young author in love with experimentation. It reminds me of the non-lamented post-modernist movement (American, 1970s or so) in which writers achieved wonderful literary effects admired by critics but forgot that readers want to read stories.

T.M. Logan 's 29 Seconds was looked at on the blog yesterday - here . Today the author kindly answers a few que...

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